West Coast Tornado outbreak of 2100
The West Coast Tornado outbreak was a destructive outbreak that affected the Pacific Northwest in August of 2100. It claimed over 1,000 lives and left catastrophic destruction in its wake. Tornado Counter Meteorological synopsis A vigorous upper-level trough moved into the Pacific coast in the early morning hours of August 16th, and interacted with a stationary boundary over most of Oregon and northern California. The Santa Ana winds transported large amounts of moisture and instability towards the boundary and generated an atmosphere almost guaranteed strong tornadoes. August 17 In the early morning hours, The SPC issued a Enhanced risk over northern California for en expected MCS. An initial warm front over the coastline spawned clusters of storms, then merging into a bowing line then entering northern California into the late afternoon hours. Knocking out power to over 1 million people and spawned 2 tornadoes, killing 3. August 18 August 19 Notable tornadoes Ellensburg/Spokane, Washington The first violent tornado of the outbreak was a long track, high-end EF4 tornado that struck the towns Of Ellensburg and Spokane, Washington. It first touched down around 5:30 a.m. PDT (12:30 UTC) on August 17. At around 5:17 a.m. PDT, A tornado warning was issued for Pierce and Kittitas Counties, shortly after, the tornado touched down northwest of Eatonville, initially downing trees and power lines then rapidly intensified to a EF2, continuing east, and struck a mobile home park, where numerous mobile homes were destroyed and 7 fatalities occurred. Two of the fatalities occurred when a family tried to take shelter in a nearby outhouse and then was struck by a large SUV which was thrown 230 yards and landed in a nearby pond. The tornado maintained EF2 strength as it exited Eatonville, rapidly moving east, the tornado encountered few structures but did extreme ground scouring, in some places reaching up to 3ft deep. At around 5:40 a.m. PDT the tornado entered the suburbs of Ellensburg, the tornado intensified into an EF4, hitting a housing plan, and wiped many well built homes to slabs and tossed cars well over a mile. At the time, a DOW was recording windspeeds of over 230mph, warranting an EF5 rating, but no damage could verify this. The tornado then started displaying extremely violent vorticity at ground level, and a grove of oak trees were completely debarked and some were lofted over 500ft into the air. The tornado then weakened to a high end EF3, hitting a high voltage substation, toppling many transmission towers, knocking out power to most of the state of Washinton. And because of that, many people could not receive adequate warnings. As the tornado continued, spotters were reporting up to 5 vortices at a time, indicating the tornado was entering vortex breakdown. The tornado's forward speed increased up to 70mph and at 6:05 a.m. The tornado entered Spokane, and struck a large water tower, and then crossed the Spokane river, badly damaging the Monroe Street Bridge. The tornado shortly intensified back to a low end EF4, hitting the neighborhood of Minnehaha, homes were completely destroyed with only exterior walls remaining, killing 30. As the tornado exited Spokane, it rapidly weakened to a EF1 striking a mobile home park, knocking over a tree onto a mobile home, killing all 4 inside. The tornado dissipated shortly after at 6:35 a.m. PDT. Credit * AlertIowa1234- filled in Tornando Counter and Meteorological synopsis and did main detail area special thanks :) Category:Outbreaks